


pull on my sea

by discountghost



Series: sea castle [2]
Category: A.C.E (Beat Interactive Band), K-pop
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bathtub Sex, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fantasy, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Siren!Donghun, Smut, too much thinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:21:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24559096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/discountghost/pseuds/discountghost
Summary: he doesn't like thinking too much. it reminds him of all the years.
Relationships: Kim Byeongkwan/Lee Donghun
Series: sea castle [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1775098
Comments: 3
Kudos: 36





	pull on my sea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Omegatits](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omegatits/gifts).



He could still smell it.

It had been two days since the night at the club, and Donghun could still smell the blood clinging to Byeongkwan’s skin. He’d listened, and watched for a short time, as the man had scrubbed at his skin until it turned red. Until it faded to a raw pink and the pathetic spray of the water hit his back. The siren had turned away at the sight of that. Now, though, he could still smell the metallic bite of blood. Lingering under pristinely clean fingernails and honeyed scent of cheap gas station soap. He swallowed, kept his eyes closed.

If he was being honest, it wasn’t so much that the scent of blood bothered him. It was more that he liked it. Liked that he could taste it on his tongue when he breathed in deep. Like he was now. He pressed his face further into the crook of Byeongkwan’s neck. Just beneath his skin was the pulse the human’s blood in his veins, coursing under skin that smelled suspiciously like milk. It mixed well with the blood, the viscera he could smell. Donghun opened his eyes, peered beyond Byeongkwan’s shoulder. It was still dark out.

He wanted to burrow deeper, breathe the human for longer but his mind was already up and his body would soon follow suit. The ache for the water remained strong, and while the shower was a poor excuse of one, it worked well enough. Well enough. The bare minimum. He cocked his head to the side, glanced down at Byeongkwan’s face. The other’s brows twitched and he twitched as if he were moving in his dream. Perhaps the most restless bedmate he’d ever had, to be sure. 

It was slow work pulling himself apart from the other. Limbs had tangled as the night progressed, Donghun supporting the human’s head and the other looping his arms around the siren’s waist. But he managed to get it done without the other waking, save for the close call of what sounded like a whine. He padded quietly to the bathroom, wincing slightly as the light flickered on. The buzz of electricity filled their small room better than the fluorescent light attempted to. It weakly shone down into the room, spilling out in a feeble escape until Donghun shut the door behind him.

He wasn’t sure if it was all the laying around that was making him so...he didn’t know the word. His muscles spasmed, skin pulled tight against them. Maybe they were too far out from any one body of water and his body knew it. Felt it. He swallowed, turned his attention to turning the water on. He shut his eyes and stretched, shut out any wandering thoughts. His existence didn’t need more thought to it than was simple and he wasn’t a fan of the way his heart raced thinking about this new development. He would take it in stride like he did with everything else. Like he did with dying.

The siren opened his eyes to a steam-clogged bathroom. How long had been trying not to think? The tub part of the shower had filled up some, though not much. He dropped the stopper, snorted. It was like one of those bad western movies he’d used to watch. Back when he’d wanted to go there. Where? Somewhere. More thinking; not good. Being around Byeongkwan was changing him as much as it was changing the human.

He sank into the water, though he barely fit in the tub. Steam rose off it like fog in the early morning on the water. The time when everything was murky and shrouded and sometimes he thought he saw something in the fog. Sometimes  _ he _ was the thing in the fog. His head knocked back into the tiles on the wall as he blinked. The whole bathroom had been plunged in the fog and he suddenly found less comfort in it than he usually did. 

Donghun turned his attention instead to the limbs he’d acquired recently. That might not be the right word, either. He didn’t like words all that much anymore. But — he’d had legs before. A silly notion now, but true. Two legs that he walked on years ago that had unwittingly carried him to his first demise. Legs that ran. After something? Away from something? He winced, dipped his head under the water before coming back up. Years ago; it’d been years. Fifty? Sixty? But it still turned his stomach, made his heart hiccup in his chest in a less than romantic way. 

No. He sat up, looked to the door just before it opened. It was quiet a moment as Byeongkwan fretted by the door. The steam rolled out, cleared up the bathroom. He sighed, turned to stare at the water. 

“Did I wake you?”

The human frowned, brows furrowed before he shook his head. “Nah; nightmare.”

“That doesn’t sound pleasant.”

“Yeah, no. It was shit. I was.” He sucked in a breath, sat on the lid of the toilet.

Donghun glanced over at him. His hair — newly brown; dyed the day before — was mussed, sticking up on one side from his sleep. The bags under his eyes were not new, but they looked worse than they had before. The siren hummed, nodded as if he understood.

“I.” Byeongkwan seemed to struggle with the words he wanted to say. “I keep thinking about it.”

“What?”

“The club. That night. K...Killing…” He trailed off, but Donghun was not stupid. He knew enough about being human to know that any normal person would be affected by what Byeongkwan had done.

“Killing Jaesung.” He finished it for him instead. The final nail in the proverbial coffin of that sentence. He looked at the other fully, placed his arms on the lip of the tub and rested his head there. The water swished around as he was silent a moment and then — “You killed a man. That’s a hard thing for anyone. But you were saving yourself. It was him, or you.”

“I know! I know that...that if I didn’t he would kill me. Like he said he would. And that he’d just leave me in a ditch.” Byeongkwan gulped down a lungful of air, waved his hand to further clear the steam from his face. “I know that it was me or him, but. He was. He was all I had.”

Ah. Yes. Grief. Donghun let his gaze drop, silence filling the space between them like the steam filled the bathroom. He wasn’t good for these kinds of things. Not when he still struggled with his own grief. It was hard, when he realized. When he learned that in one death he was losing something. But it had been taken from him and every thought lead back to the same angry chorus:  _ they’ve taken it. _ He blinked before his mind could scrape at the bare memory of someone holding him down. 

Byeongkwan didn’t sob. His tears were silent. Maybe a habit he had formed in the years, but Donghun could smell it just as easily as the blood that lingered on his skin. The siren watched him a moment longer before lifting a hand and beckoning him forward.

“I...don’t have the words you need to hear.” The truth, they say, will set you free. “You killed someone to survive. Someone who isolated you, treated you as less. And yes, you are right; he did intend to kill you after you’d told him no. It takes a killer to know one, and all that. But, you still  _ felt _ something for him. And now you feel empty.”

The other didn’t respond aside from coming closer to the tub. Rather than voice an invitation to join him, he guided the human into the water. Watched the way the liquid seeped into his clothes as he lowered himself in. Nestled in close to the siren. 

“Sometimes.” His lips were on the skin that smelled like milk and honey and blood. “It helps if you fill the gaps, a little, with people.” He pressed open-mouthed kisses into the other’s skin, let his teeth graze flesh as he went. 

It might not have been applied in the same sense of what Donghun had done. A literal filling of his maw with human parts as he ate the years of anger and grief of all he could have had taken away like he was going to town on a tub of ice cream in the middle of the night. Byeongkwan turned in his arms, wrapped his own around the other’s neck as their lips slotted together. Desperate. The other sighed into the kiss.

This — he could do this. He could do something that didn’t involve so much thought. He could strip Byeongkwan of the clothes that had begun to form a second skin on him, slip his fingers to tease at his hole. Thoughtless. The other rocked his hips as one finger became two, three. It was an easy thing to listen to Byeongkwan mewl, feel as his fingers bit into his shoulders. Blunt nails that dug into his skin. A sweet sort of sting. He closed his eyes, leaned forward so their lips connected.

It wasn’t so much out of habit as it was an instinctual knowing that had him thrusting up into the warmth of Byeongkwan. The roll of hips as he slid in deep. The siren watched Byeongkwan’s lips parted around a moan he was sure echoed out of the bathroom. A satisfaction burrowed deep into him. Not...not overwhelming, but something new. Something placating. His brows furrowed, attention turned back to the human bouncing on his dick. The water rippled as they moved, like an echo of them.

Donghun leaned back, hands on Byeongkwan’s hips to guide him. Fingers pressed into his shoulder his chest and he relished the touch. How long since the last time he’d done this? Since someone had touched him of his own accord and not out of fear? Rightfully placed fear, but not the same as  _ wanting _ to touch him this way. He sucked in a breath, brought the other closer to him. Stuck his face in the crook of Byeongkwan’s neck as they groaned, breathed in tandem.

A simple inhale and exhale, but it made his chest ache. Burn in a way that he hadn’t felt in years. Fifty? Sixty? They melted together. The weight of Byeongkwan in his hands felt like nothing. Certainly much less than the weight of other bodies he has held. Dead weight.

His breath stuttered out against Byeongkwan skin as his thrusts turned erratic. The other whined, mewled, clawed at him as his release hit him harder. He wondered, for a moment, if his ex had ever truly taken the time to focus on him. 

He was art. Back arched, lips open. Eyes watering, like little pearls shining in their beds on the sea floor. Catching the light. Muscles coiled until they relaxed and he slumped forward, used Donghun to keep himself propped up. The water was cold. They stayed in there for a moment longer.

He returned Byeongkwan to the bed. He still smelled like blood. Like milk and honey and blood and grief. The grief might have been a little bit of his own. He blinked, rubbed his eyes. The other had fallen asleep fast. Gentle breaths left him as he curled up into the covers. Donghun pulled them further up, tucked them under the other’s chin before he stood.

The air outside was thick. Humid? He wasn’t very good with words. He tugged at the collar of his shirt and trudged his way down to where the ice was supposed to be. Ice? No; a vending machine. Walking was still...not his greatest strength and he leaned on the wall as he went. He froze, though. Limbs rigid.

The figure at the end of the hall stood just as still as he. The fluorescent flicker of the vending machines and the light overhead shadow his face, but Donghun can smell his kind anywhere. Knew the distinct smell of blood under layers of other smells. Not milk or honey. Like lavender and decay.

“Fancy meeting you here, again.”

The figure jumped, turned to look at him. Though, he really couldn’t see much of his face. But it didn’t matter; he bolted. Took off to his room and Donghun got his soda (after shoving his hand through the machine and pulling it out; he dropped a quarter from the ground into the machine). He smirked as he pushed the door to their room open. Byeongkwan blinked up at him.

“Found your friends.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> I probably don't need to explain myself, but I wanted to kind of say that this is like...an exploration of grief. Not fully, not wholly. I don't think I could ever do a good job of that, but it was important for both to face it. Or acknowledge the existence of it. And they can only seek to truly free themselves when they get past it.
> 
> I hope, sincerely, that you enjoyed reading this! Please look forward to more.
> 
> [twt](https://twitter.com/discountghosts) / [cc](https://curiouscat.me/remeremerem)


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